New Yorker's Buffalo Wings
2499 Lombard St
(415) 931-8181
Every time I'm conning (or conned by) my friends to go up and lose money at Reno, inevitably there's a stop at the Nugget Diner. If you have not been to this divine little hole-in-the-wall, let me just say that you are missing out on one great cheap bastard dining experience. The Nugget Diner is a magic place where one can sit within the cramped confines and get ample servings of greasy grilled food. Okay, maybe my words don't do the place justice. But it truly is a divine joint to grab some grub at in between spins of roulette. An homage to the silly American dining experience. Take my word for it.
I mention the Nugget Diner because New Yorker's Buffalo Wings, on the no-man's-land strip of Lombard between the Golden Gate and Van Ness, has an uncanny resemblance to it. While you won't get the bargain basement Nevada prices, you will come close. And you'll get an atmosphere that somehow combines some of the best qualities of burger joints, with odd flourishes of randomly placed sports posters, a number of faux aspidistras (including one wrapped with a string of white Xmas lights that seems to remain on all year round) and a restaurant that's a lot bigger on the inside than it looks on the exterior.
But let's talk about the food. Buffalo wings are their specialty, and New Yorker's does deliver quite competently in that department. You can get anywhere from 3 to 60 at once, and they're pretty tasty. There's also a variety of burger meals at around $5 a pop.
But by far the greatest option is the Dog Deal. For $3.25, you get a wiener that's about the size of a Dirk Diggler, a soda, and your choice of fries or chips. The fries are probably the best choice, although they do tend to be inconsistent in quality -- either really tasty chunks of potato or overfried.
New Yorker's is a bit of an anomaly, in that it's between Union and Chestnut. For the most part, however, it's fairly devoid of snotty professionals, although my last visit had my friends and I suffering through an insipid conversation of a couple behind us that involved new furniture sets a frightening zeal for interior design. Scary.
But, if for some reason you're stuck in Yuppyville (as I am frequently am due to the cruelty of movie distributors booking a great flick only at the Presidio), the fact that it exists is somewhat of a godsend given the onslaught of Jack in the Boxes and places that offer the ridiculous notion of "gourmet burritos" in a city that boasts some of the finest burritos anywhere.
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